


Under the stars

by ThatGreenBean



Category: Inazuma Eleven
Genre: Drama & Romance, During The Original Series, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 09:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatGreenBean/pseuds/ThatGreenBean
Summary: For Midorikawa, Hiroto was the calm he needed. For Hiroto, Midorikawa felt like home.After going through all the things that could separate them and overcome them, they needed only one thing.They needed to make a wish upon a star.





	Under the stars

**Author's Note:**

> This was commissioned by @avocaducks on twitter! and I had a lot of fun writting it! So I hope you enjoy this too!

Every time Hiroto laid his eyes on Midorikawa, his whole world expanded and got painted with new colors. 

The first time it happened, they were only five years old, Hiroto was all by himself on the swings as he enjoyed looking at the other kids play. Sometimes the other kids would tell him he comes off as weird, but there was really something he enjoyed by just looking at other people having fun, but in the whole picture of kids playing with a ball, others on the slide, and the rest just running around, an apple green spot caught his attention. A kid with short green hair was clutching to the skirt of one of the caretakers of the orphanage, a young lady with a pink apron that had a small cat drawing on the chest. It was the first time Hiroto saw that boy, he noticed that his lower eyelids were red like his small nose and round cheeks, he looked at the playground while shielding himself behind the young lady. Hiroto found himself really curious about that boy with the orange T-shirt and a sad look on his face.  

“What are you looking at now?” 

Hiroto jumped when he heard a voice behind him, it was Suzuno, who approached him with a pink ball in his hands.

“Nothing… who’s that boy? I’ve never seen him”

“The crybaby? He got here yesterday late at night” Suzuno sat on the other swing beside Hiroto “I heard he just cried when he got here and only managed to fall asleep this morning. His name is Mido-something”

“He must be really scared.” 

Suzuno lifted his shoulders as if the matter wasn’t that important “We’ve all been there.” 

“Someone should ask him if he wants to play…”

Hiroto looked down at his feet, acting like he didn’t say anything.

“Why don’t you go? You need a friend.”

“Aren’t you my friend?” Hiroto’s eyes widened at the idea that Suzuno did not consider him a friend of his, “You’re one of the only people that talks to me…”

Suzuno sighed as he noticed he said something he didn’t mean to.

“I mean that you need other friends. If you stopped getting away from the rest, they wouldn't think you're creepy!” Suzuno put his face really close to Hiroto’s, who just avoided his angry gaze with a silly smile.

“It’s…. Not easy.”

Suzuno rolled his eyes and sighed tiredly as he stood up from the swing and left the pink ball in Hiroto’s hands. He walked towards the main house and it looked like some other kids had approached the new boy too. Hiroto laid his gaze at the ball in his hands, thinking that he just missed a chance to actually make a friend of his own, without the help of anyone else; now that the boy would make friends with the rest, he'll probably never think about being friendly with him because the rest would tell him that he was a loner and he shouldn’t approach him. Just as Hiroto started feeling like he wanted to cry, he saw Suzuno’s yellow sneakers in front of him, he raised his head and saw him and the new kid beside him. Now that he was in front of him, he could see all of his face more clearly: His skin was tanned and it had this kind of bronze glow when the sun hit it, big dark and shining eyes with some long lashes that made him look a little bit girly, his apple green hair wasn’t too long, but covered the tip of his ears a little, his bangs didn’t cover his face, he looked a little bit uncomfortable and Suzuno was holding his hand.

“This guy’s name is Hiroto and he likes playing soccer, but he doesn’t have anyone that would kick the ball with him.” 

Hiroto was startled when he saw Suzuno’s finger right in front of his face. The boy stuttered a little before taking a deep breath and tried to smile.

“I can play with you if you want to.”

With just a little smile from the new kid, Hiroto’s heart almost got out of his chest and ran away for the sheer happiness of having someone that wanted to play with him. He stood up pretty fast from the swing and handed the ball to the boy in front of him, managing to scare him and make Suzuno try to hide a big laugh.

“My name is Hiroto Kiyama!” He screamed out of nowhere, with his cheeks that were always pale taking on a red blush.

“My name is Ryuuji Midorikawa” 

Their hands slightly brushed when Midorikawa took the ball from him, Hiroto’s heart skipped again. While they kicked the ball between each other, Hiroto didn’t talk to him, he had his mouth tightly closed in his innocent belief that, because of the big knot he felt in his throat, if he opened it, his heart would get out of there and run away. The two kids played until the caretakers called them and the rest for dinner, Midorikawa stuck beside Hiroto the whole time and finally cheered up a little after playing and talking with him, then at night, all the kids slept in a big room on top of futons placed on the floor, all of them side by side. Hiroto was getting ready to sleep when Midorikawa tapped him on his shoulder, he saw behind him and there was his new friend, hugging a yellow pillow bigger than him.

“Can I sleep beside you tonight?”

Hiroto’s heart was just exhausted at this point after a day full of strong emotions. Hiroto nodded and Midorikawa sat on the futon beside his. He couldn’t avoid seeing his pajamas that were just a big, long soft blue shirt that covered his shorts and made it look as if he was wearing a dress like the girls. Midorikawa made himself comfortable on the futon and before Hiroto could tell him something, one of the caretakers turn the lights off and everyone went to sleep. Hiroto resigned to the idea of speaking a little bit more with Midorikawa before sleeping until he felt another soft touch on his back, he rolled to the other side and saw Midorikawa looking at him while hugging that yellow pillow.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered

“I had… fun today. Will we play together again tomorrow?” 

“Sure” he smiled at him with more confidence and Midorikawa felt at ease with him acting that way.

“I was really scared yesterday. The ladies in here told me that they would take care of me”

“Trust them, they’re really nice” Hiroto stopped himself and swallowed before talking again “You should try and forget about your life before yesterday. It will make things a little bit easier”

At that moment he thought he had said something wrong, because Midorikawa’s eyes dwelled big tears that rolled down his cheeks when he blinked. Hiroto didn’t know what to do, so he just extended his small hand to touch Midorikawa’s face and cleaned the tears with the sleeve of his pajamas. They were like that for a moment until Midorikawa managed to calm himself.

“Yeah… I think you’re right”

It was unexpected that Midorikawa would take Hiroto’s hand from his cheek and laid it between them while still holding it. Hiroto looked at him again and he was smiling at him.

“Good night, Hiroto”

“Good night, Ryuuji”

The first time Hiroto looked at Midorikawa he noticed it how pretty the sunset was, his small body got covered in sweat, he couldn’t pronounce words as easy as always and he was more nervous than ever because he fell in love with him, but he didn’t notice it until some years passed and he was old enough to see it.

Their small friendship turned into a strong bond over the years. Growing together, going to the same class for years, everything was new for Hiroto, and he never thought that just one boy could erase all those years of loneliness and the feelings of uncertainty that always bothered him only by smiling. When they were ten they even started sharing a room with two beds and were an inseparable duo, but then, life brought hardships upon them. 

No one in the orphanage could understand why they had to pretend they were aliens, why their loving father turned cold one day and started showing preference to the kids that were better at playing soccer or why do their beloved sport got turned into a punishment. Three years passed and now Hiroto was the best of the best, the favorite son and the top of the elite in this new school they started attending, and Midorikawa was good too, but not the best. Hiroto never stopped making an effort to not drift apart from his first friend, because even if he had that emotionless and stern look on his face when he supervised the practice of the team that he led, or when he had to report to father any progress his team made, Hiroto knew that the same kid that held his hand until falling asleep was there.

After changing into more comfortable clothes than the silver space suit he used as an uniform during practice, and walked at night through the metallic looking, desolate corridors of their school, located at Mount Fuji, he stumbled upon Midorikawa (or Reize, at that time). He wasn’t wearing his usual uniform, but some jeans and a blue shirt with long sleeves, and his hair wasn’t in his usual hairdo, but the locks of vibrant green hair fell gracefully on top of his shoulders and his messy bangs covered his eyes a little. They both stopped in front of the other and when Hiroto smiled at him, so did Midorikawa.

“Hi, Reize. I haven't seen you today”

“Hi, Gran-sama. I was busy today, with all the planning for the next game”

“I’m sure Gemini Storm will excel themselves, as always” he said, as he approached him a little “I like seeing your hair this way too, it’s nostalgic.”

Reize touched his bangs by instinct and set them apart to see Hiroto better and show him a shy but cheerful smile, different from the stern expression his alien persona usually has. 

“You think so? I just got off from the shower and having my hair like this reminds me that my usual hairstyle is really…. Heavy.”

The way he sighed, made Gran laugh and in the end, Reize followed him. Reize made Gran company while walking around the school, there were still a couple of hours until curfew and decided to catch up as there were no adults around. Gran bought two drinks at a machine and took Reize with him to one of the fields that still was light up since they were watering the grass. They sat on an already dry spot and enjoyed looking how the light from the reflectors that kept the roofed field lit made the watered grass shine.

“It looks like little stars, but on the ground” said Reize, with a lost expression

“I wish we could see stars like we used to back in the orphanage” said Hiroto

“Do you… miss those days?”

Gran could hear Reize’s hesitancy in his voice.

“I do. They’re part of the past now though, and we-”

“Should forget the past” Reize interrupted him, and looked irritated while doing it “It makes it easier, right?”

“It’s the best we can do now. Our father's plans, will start next week, and the next match will decide which lower rank team will go and challenge Raimon Junior High”

“It will be Gemini Storm, I can promise you that"

Suddenly, Reize’s determined expression made a comeback “And after we win, we will beat Raimon. As they say “ _ the first blow is half the battle _ ” and I plan to finish them with just one game”

“You don’t need to get so serious about it. I’m sure that we will only need Gemini´s power to fulfil father's dreams”

The praise made Reize’s firmness slowly crumble as a blush appeared on his tanned cheeks.

“Gran-sama…”

“Please, drop the honorific. The nickname too"

“What do you mean?”

“Could you call me by my name?”

Gran looked straight into Reize’s black eyes and saw the light reflecting on them. Reize put a strand of hair behind his ear and left his half-empty bottle of coke on the ground to hug his legs.

“Hiroto, if someone heard us... If father did… He would get really mad”

“He’s not here right now, Midorikawa”

Reize’s body shivered as he heard his real name after three years of being a total different person.

“I thought that forgetting the past meant forgetting everything, including our names”

“When we win, because we will, there will be no one that will be able to stop us from just relaxing and being friendly. All this three years of sacrifices would be worth it”

Reize’s eyes were fixated on Hiroto now, on his face, his soft features and pale skin that shone under the bright white lights. When Reize, or Midorikawa, saw Hiroto, his head would start feeling cloudy, his body would try to succumb to the dizziness and, to top it all, his heart would try to rip open his chest cavity and drop in front of them so Hiroto would find out about how he felt for him. It was painful to hear him say he would prefer to forget about the past, when the memories of the two of them together were the only thing that kept him sane in the madness that he had been living the last three years.

“If that means to be able to play like we used to, it will be worth it, Hiroto”

One of Reize’s hands laid by mistake on top of Gran’s and, even if the two were completely embarrassed by what was happening, they wouldn’t say a thing, so they could endure the touch just a little longer. The next day, Gemini Storm won his match and it was decided to give them the mission to send the message of Aliea Academy to the world, and they did. They kept on a winning streak and their father couldn’t be happier. Then, they lost against Raimon, and Hiroto saw a face of his father he had never seen: One of pure wrath. 

Aliea academy was surprised about losing a game, some of the kids blamed on Gemini’s lack of power, the others on Reize’s misdirections, Hiroto just kept quiet. The night after the loss of Gemini Storm he found out that his father had taken actions about the punishment. He never found out what happened more than that he never saw Midorikawa and the rest of the team again.

 

“He probably killed them”

Hiroto dropped his bottle of water on the field when he heard what Burn, the captain of Prominence, said.

“You think so?” said Gran as he tried to keep control over himself.

“.... It’s a possibility...” 

Burn, who had a deep hatred for the captain of the strongest team of Aliea, avoided doing the hurtful comment he was about to make when he felt his human conscience coming back to him.

“Would father dirty his hands in the blood of children?”

Gran played with a soccer ball with his foot and Burn could hear Gazelle’s voice in his head saying that he was an idiot.

“I know you loved him-”

“Shut up, Burn. Just shut up and practice”

Gran kicked the ball up and caught it with his hand before getting out of the field, he left Ulvida in charge of the team and saw the practice match between Prominence and Genesis from the seats. As his mind was filled again with worries that he already had, a familiar silhouette approached him and sat beside him. Gazelle, the captain of Diamond Dust, took a deep breath before sighing and speaking.

“Are you back to your old bad habit of isolating yourself from everyone and just looking at them like a creep? That sure brings memories”

“That used to be me, before I met Midorikawa”

Only by pronouncing that name, Gazelle’s cold facade crumbled a little and he started fixing his hair like how he used to do when his feelings overwhelmed him.

“Why do you call him by that name?”

“Does it matter by what name I call him now? He’s not here anymore. I won’t see him again”

The serious look Gran had on his face sent chills down Gazelle’s spine. The implications of what he said made him nervous, and there was something about the aura of the boy beside him that made him stop thinking and confess.

“Gran… I think I might have overheard something about what happened to Gemini Storm”

Gran turned slowly, almost as slow and sinister as a monster from a nightmare would do, Gazelle swallowed before speaking.

“I came here just to tell you this. It looks like after they lost to Raimon, and Epsilon was sent to get them, they were punished.”

“We all get punished if we don't fulfil the expectations.” he said, almost angry “But they just made them disappear and told us it was a warning of what could happen to us, as if they…”  
  


“Were killed? I thought the same, I’m sure everyone thinks that way. I can assure you, they’re still alive”

Gran rose quickly from his seat and fixated his emerald eyes on Gazelle who stood up too and took him by the wrist,  turning his head side to side to see if no one was around them and then dragged Gran out of the stadium, only that their suspicious attitude did catch someone’s attention. At the corridor that connected the stadium with the school, Gazelle finally spoke

“I heard the scientists that work for father talking about what they did to them. Father expelled them, and they were sent to the laboratory where they tested the new machine on them”

Gran could feel his body going cold as he heard Gazelle, he knew that he showed it on his face because the always earnest Gazelle looked too shaken by the story he was telling.

“Reize… Midorikawa took the blame, or they made him take it”

“What did they do to him? What happened to Ryuuji? ”

“They tested the machine that erases memories on him, then on the team. It looks like they finished the work by abandoning them on a confidential location”

“Didn’t you hear where?!” 

Gran’s outburst of emotion made Gazelle feel threatened, but not enough to not respond.

“You think that if I didn’t know I wouldn’t tell you?” said he, as he tried to quell his emotions “You should calm yourself, Gran, before father thinks you’ll betray him because you miss your little friend”

Gazelle forced a smile and fixed his hair again

“There’s nothing you can do. You can’t just go and look for them without being considered a traitor. Now, will you, father’s favorite boy, do that?”

“You should, it would be great for us if you leave”

Gazelle and Gran were startled when Burn appeared behind them, he approached Gazelle and stood beside him with a smile.

“What do you mean?” said Gran, who stopped trying to hide his anger

“Imagine, if you suddenly dropped out, Genesis would fall apart, then the real fight would be between me and this guy” he pointed at Gazelle, who frowned at him “I wish I could actually destroy you and your team, but I prefer you to run away if you’re going to act so weak because Reize isn’t here anymore”

Gran ran towards him and grabbed him by the neck, bringing him up so he could meet his eyes. The captains of Genesis, Prominence and Diamond Dust were used to fighting between them, but for Gran to be the one starting it, and to be physical, surprised both Burn and Gazelle.

“So you think it’s good that they got abandoned again?!”

“Why are you getting so angry? If it was your beloved father who ordered it.” Gazelle pulled Burn back to his side from the back of his shirt, without taking his eyes from Gran’s expression of despair.

“What?”

“Of course it was him. Who else could have so much power in here to experiment on people and then throw them away like that?” he crossed his arms and bit his lip “ That man doesn’t love us, he only cares for what we can do for him.”

“No… father was not like this.”

“Maybe, in the past” remarked Burn

“The man you call father is just a memory from the past, like Midorikawa is now, Gran. You should forget it, so it makes it easier to move on”

As he saw Gazelle’s expressionless face and the annoying grin on Burns’ face, Gran felt like he wanted to cry like a little boy, to throw the biggest tantrum because suddenly, everything he stood for was getting shattered like mere crystal in front of him. He was breathing like a maniac, as if he had run for hours, with his shoulders going up and down, then he stopped himself and lifted his gaze from the ground. Burn instinctively turned his hands into fists and Gazelle squeezed the lock of hair he was arranging. Gran had that irritating and disturbing hollow smile on his face again.

“Father will be mad if you tell anyone else about what happened to Gemini.”

“... That easily will you forget, Gran? You never stop amusing me” Gazelle erased his forced smile.

“It’s not like I was human anymore”

Gran turned around and walked away, Burn ignored the chills on his body and clicked his tongue. 

“Do you think he forgot about Midorikawa that easily?”

Gazelle saw the strands of disheveled hair in front of his eyes before answering.

“I don’t know anymore. I don’t know who that person is”

They turned the other way and went inside the stadium for the rest of the match. Gran walked the lonely corridors without a clear thought in his mind, he entered his private room and when the metallic door closed behind him, he leaned on it and let himself fall slowly on the ground. His hair was messy, and covering his face, his hands were shaking and he turned them into fists when he saw the tears fall on his palms. He cried tears of happiness because he knew that Midorikawa and the rest were alive. Gran ignored the fact of the torture for a moment so he could rejoice in the tranquillity of knowing that he could see the person he loved once again. When he calmed himself he cleaned the tears from his face, and rest his head on the cold, metallic door, before coming to a resolution.

“I just have to win, so father’s dream comes true. I will be so powerful that he would let me search for Midorikawa, so we will be able to play again like he wanted to”

That was his plan, only that he overlooked that their rival team grew stronger every day. The boy that leads Raimon, Mamoru Endou, was like a ray of light with his unyielding positivism and constant rejection to giving up, so when he finally had the match that he longed for with him, he could not believe how everything turned to be. Genesis, the strongest team in the universe, lost. His father asked for forgiveness and was arrested in front of them. Gran could be Hiroto again as he felt some tranquility when his sister took his hand. Hiroto saw the rest of his teammates cry as the police took them to a safe place and he remembered that he was only thirteen years old, that he still was a kid. Hiroto was so tired and only noticed it the at that moment, everything was over. In the car, when everyone was quiet, Hitomiko made the most important question.

“Hiroto, the school was completely evacuated, Prominence and Diamond Dust are in a safe location, but there was no clue of the whereabouts of the players from Epsilon or Gemini Storm. Do you know where they are?”

Ulvida put his hand on his leg and squeezed hard, he knew she left nail marks on his thigh. Everyone on the bus had terrified faces and some of them started crying again, thinking that the rumors of father killing children were true. Hiroto let some tears fall down his eyes.

“Father disposed of them. They might be wandering in Hokkaido, or Kyoto, somewhere in Japan”

Hitomiko covered his mouth with his fingers and the detective started making calls so the police force would start looking for the missing children immediately.

“I wanted to win, so I could bring them back. Sister… would you find them?”

Hiroto looked up and Hitomiko sat between him and Reina, to bring them close to her and hug them.

“I will. I promise” 

 

During those three years in were all those kids would be under the control of their father, there was this feeling of void Hiroto could not erase at all. Now he knew it was fear, a fear so strong that he adapted it to feeling nothing so he wouldn't go crazy. He was scared of losing his father and friends, scared of what father would try to do in Japan then the world, he was scared of the fact that there was a high possibility that the rest would never be found. Hiroto was terrified of the idea of not seeing Midorikawa again.

Hitomiko was a woman that if she promised something, she would fulfil it, more if it was a way to try and repair the mistakes of her father. Two days after they got back to Tokyo, to the orphanage that used to be their home, Hitomiko and the police team started finding out about the whereabouts of the kids. Hitomiko let them in good care to help and bring all the kids back home. Genesis, Prominence and Diamond dust were the only ones at the orphanage, and in the week they waited for news of the rest, they made an effort to try and act like everything was normal, a lie that only lasted hours. In those five days, hell broke loose in the orphanage. There were fights, people blaming each other for what happened, a pure chaos that the caretakers tried their best to control. Hiroto just kept himself calm, looking at his phone and waiting for his sister’s call, telling him they had found all of them. 

Even in those moments, the only thing Hiroto could do was to observe everyone, from the ones fighting, to the ones desperately crying time to time, the ones that were grateful that they came out of it alive to the ones that just shut themselves in. The only person he had the guts to approach to was Suzuno, who looked like he had so many things going on inside him that the only thing he could do was sit on the sofa of one of the living rooms and stare at the ground.

“Suzuno, can I accompany you?”

Suzuno looked at him, his eyes had dark bags under them and didn’t say a thing. Hiroto sat next to him.

“Have you eaten today?”

“I don’t have appetite”

“Do you want me to bring you a cookie or something?”

“I’m fine”

“No, you’re not”

Suzuno laughed a little and his shoulders trembled. He put his icy eyes on Hiroto.

“No one really is. It’s a fucking madhouse in here”

“If we managed to endure everything these last three years, then this will be nothing” he said as he laid back on the sofa, still feeling tired.

“Has Hitomiko-san called?”

“Nothing yet. That makes me feel insecure”

Before Suzuno could say a thing, Nagumo appeared wearing a red apron and a white cloth covering his hair while holding a basket under his arm and threw two sandwiches wrapped in plastic to them.

“What’s the meaning of this?” asked Suzuno, a little irritated

“The ladies from the kitchen are worried because all of you idiots ain’t eating, so I help them make these. Stop trying to make people worry about you, it's pathetic” said Nagumo. He didn’t stay to fight with Suzuno and kept handing out the sandwiches he made.

“He’s such an asshole… I clearly told him I wasn’t hungry!”

As fast as Suzuno spoke his stomach growled and Hiroto smiled at him when he blushed.

“I think he did this, especially for you. Just eat” said Hiroto as he started unwrapping his egg and bacon sandwich.

Suzuno did the same and took the envelopment off his food, he stopped breathing when he saw it was a tuna and mayo sandwich with tomato. His favorite. Suzuno looked at the food and he did not feel like the past days when the look and smell of food disgusted him, he licked his upper lip and took a big bite of his sandwich. He tasted the tuna with the mayonnaise and tomatoes and could almost hear his stomach giving him thanks for the food.

“Is it good?” Hiroto swallowed his food before speaking

“It has too much mayonnaise and almost no tomato, he just exaggerates! Look how the tuna is dripping from the bread, this is messy!”

“Then why are you crying?”

As Suzuno talked, he ignored the fact that the tears rolled out of his eyes without his permission, but the taste of that homemade food brought him the nostalgic memories of the days of his childhood that would finally come back. Suzuno couldn’t stop himself from crying and was happy that at least there was only Hiroto on the room with him. Hiroto finished his own sandwich and let Suzuno enjoy his between tears.

“Try to put your pride on a side and thank Nagumo for this.”

“I’m angry that he’s the one that’s the most level headed at the moment” Suzuno cleaned some tears with the sleeve of his blue sweater “Like, how can he be so calm?!”

“Maybe this is his way to cope with the trauma” Hiroto laid his hand on Suzuno’s shoulder “I’m sure than when this is over you guys will start bickering again”

Suzuno made an effort and smiled at Hiroto before taking another bite of his sandwich, then another, and before he knew, he finished it and wanted another one, but even bigger.

“You know who also likes Tuna-Mayo sandwiches? Midorikawa” Suzuno spoke without thinking, he covered his mouth with his hand when he heard what he said.

“Yeah, he would love to eat one of those Tuna-Mayo bombs ” 

There was this feeling of positivism that got into Suzuno as he heard Hiroto talking like everything would be ok, so he stood up from the sofa and went to the door that connected the living room to the hallway that went to the kitchen

“I’ll make Nagumo do more of these things and save 3 for Ryuuji, for when he comes back”

Suzuno didn’t stay to see Hiroto smiling at him, he wasn’t that kind of a sentimental person. As he was left alone, he thought that he might watch the T.V. in front of him, but when he touched the remote control, his phone started ringing. Hitomiko was calling him. Hiroto rose up and almost dropped his phone when he answered it.

“Sister! Are you ok? Did you find them?!”

“Hiroto, yes, I found everyone from Epsilon and Gemini Storm”

Hiroto’s heart hurts, but in a good way, his eyes got a little bit teary and he stuttered while speaking.

“A-Are they a-alright?”

“Some of them are a little confused, but they’ll live… The only one that worries me is Midorikawa”

Suddenly, his high spirits got destroyed with just some words. Hiroto felt hopelessness while thinking that everyone would come back home safe and sound, instead of Midorikawa. Hitomiko kept talking and Hiroto wasn’t hearing anything. When she saw that he wasn’t answering, she called his name.

“Hiroto! Are you there?!”

“What’s wrong with Midorikawa?” he interrupted his sister

“... We found him in Hokkaido, in a hospital, Miura was also there and explained to me that he found Midorikawa hospitalized just two days ago. He didn’t recognize him”

“How’s that possible?”

“Some of the kids from Gemini storm had temporal amnesia, but they slowly recovered his memories over the days. I’m praying that it happens the same with Midorikawa”

“But how’s he?!” the desperation was notable in his voice

“He’s sedated right now. We will take him and the rest to a hospital close to home today. We will be there tonight” Hitomiko’s serious voice gave some relief to Hiroto, he knew she wouldn’t lie to him if there was really something bad happening.

“Thank you so much for keeping your promise, sister” his voice broke a little.

“Go and tell the others, then rest. If everything works out, all of you can come and visit tomorrow”

Hiroto finished up the call and bit his lower lip so hard, he could taste the blood dripping from it. Hiroto cleaned his jaw and licked the self-inflicted wound before putting his phone in a pocket of his pant and going out into the common hall where everyone had a better mood after eating the sandwiches Nagumo made. There was clearly a cheerful mood as some of the boys were making fun of his get up.

“You look adorable with that apron!” said Natsuhiko before bursting into laughter

“You think so? I think it’ll look better after I put it up in your ass” the calmness in his words as he said this manage to shut Natsuhiko, but not the rest.

“Geez, you’re not fun to pick on if you don’t blow up!” Shigeto stood up between him and Natsuhiko to avoid a fight.

“Sorry for not being your personal clown, asshole”

“I don’t know, I kinda like this tame Nagumo”

Suzuno spoke out of nowhere and everyone went silent after hearing him, saying that he liked Nagumo. Tame or not, it was something that no one would ever expect to get out of his mouth. Suzuno did not understand why everyone shut up and when he saw at Nagumo, with a weird and uncomfortable look on his face, he understood that what he said was too far-out of his normal behavior.

“Suzuno, you really need a therapist” said Fumiko, who was sitting beside him and trying not to laugh in his face.

“After what happened, don’t we all need one?” Hiroto spoke out loud and got all eyes on him “But before making appointments with psychologists, my sister called”

The matter with Suzuno was quickly forgotten and now everyone’s attention was on Hiroto. Reina stood up and got right in front of his face, with the anguish marked on her face. Hiroto felt his heart shrink because Reina wasn’t like this at all.

“Tell me they’re all right”

“They are, they all are. My sister found them all and is bringing them home already”

The mood got so much better than during the whole week they had been back. Hiroto saw Reina breathing again and accepted the sudden hug she gave him. She went with Fumiko and the rest, Natsuhiko went to tell the good news to the caretakers and Nagumo sat in an empty chair. and when Atsuishi went to ask him how was he, he saw that he fell asleep as fast as he touched the red cushion chair. Nagumo was one of those who could not sleep at nights. Suzuno smiled a little as Kimiyuki stepped on a stool and tried to draw something on Nagumo’s face with a pink marker, but Hiroto’s bitter expression caught his attention immediately and he knew that not everything was all right.

“Why aren’t you crying out of joy like the rest? Is everything all right?” 

Hiroto took him to a corner where he finally sighed slowly before talking “They’ll be taken to a hospital before coming home”

“I can imagine, but I still don’t see why such the gloomy face”

“... Midorikawa is not… as well as the rest, Suzuno”

Now was turn for Suzuno to stop breathing and his whole body to turn cold. Hiroto could see the stiffness on his shoulders so he kept talking when Suzuno didn’t say a word.

“Miura found him in a hospital some days ago. Midorikawa did not-” he choked on his own words and took a deep breath to continue “recognize him.”

“...He actually used them as lab rats for that hellish machine…”

“It looks like the rest had temporal amnesia. My sister waits for him to recover the memories slowly” said Hiroto, with the light abandoning his eyes.

“He will” Suzuno grabbed his shoulder and squeezed hard “We came too long just to leave someone behind. Midorikawa will be fine”

Having Suzuno trying to cheer him up did make him feel better, he wouldn’t do it for anyone else and he was as worried as Hiroto was.

“Don’t tell anyone. Maybe when he wakes up, he will be better.”

 

For the rest of the day, the tension was high as everyone waited for Hitomiko to show up, and when she did, she was suddenly rounded by almost 30 teenagers that wanted answers. Hitomiko managed to calm them down and made everyone follow her to the common hall.

“Both the Epsilon and Gemini members are in the hospital. The doctors said everything would be fine and tomorrow they can start receiving visits” she put a lock of hair behind her ear before speaking again “It's already late so all of you, go to bed”

No one said anything more to her and everyone went to their rooms, everyone except Hiroto, who kept biting his bottom lip while looking at her, and Suzuno, who waited behind him.

“You two should go up with the rest”

“Did he wake up?”

Hitomiko sighed, she relaxed her shoulders when she sat on the sofa and softly pat on the seats beside her so Hiroto and Suzuno sat too.

“He did wake up. He was a little confused, but he knew who Miura and Saginuma were”

Suzuno let out a breath and touched his chest, his heart was beating as fast as it could, but he finally managed to feel some relief. Hiroto still had his fists strongly clenched.

“So is he out of danger?” said Suzuno

“Yes, he only had to be sedated because the shock of getting his memories back was too much” She said with a smile “ It'll be good if he sees some old photos or things that makes him remember”

“Reina and the girls found some old photo albums, I'll ask for them”

“Thanks Suzuno” she saw Hiroto, who was really pale and looked dizzy "I'm sure he'll be happy if you visit him tomorrow”

“… I'll go to sleep” 

Hiroto stood up without a notice and murmured a really low “good night” before running to the stairs and into his room. Hitomiko looked at him disappearing in the stairs before letting out another sigh.

“Should I worry?” said Suzuno

“Hiroto may be blaming himself, from not stopping our father”

When she mentioned the word “father” Suzuno felt like if he wanted to puke, then he remembered that expression Gran had when he told him about what happened to Gemini Storm.

“He was completely brainwashed. He couldn't do anything, none of us could”

“Yes, but he thinks he could have done something. Now, go to sleep instead of worrying”

She touched his back before he rose up, made a small reverence, then went to his room and left Hitomiko alone with her thoughts.

 

The lights were off on the hallway when Hiroto got in his room, so he didn't see exactly which room he got in, and the room was also dark, except for some fluorescent green shapes on the wall. The dark room was full of light when, after stumbling with a chair and almost falling, he managed to turn the light on. It was his room, but not the room with the single bed in where he had been staying for the last week, but the room with two beds and two tables at the sides of the window in the back. It was the room he had been trying to avoid the whole week. The room he and Midorikawa used to share.

It was clean and there was no sign of dust, the caretakers keep it that way all those years. It stayed just like the two of them let it the day those men in the orange sunglasses and black jackets took them to Aliea. There were still those stars that light up in the dark on the walls, and a pile of children’s books on Midorikawa's night table. The bed sheets on his bed were dark blue and had constellations on them, and the memories of him being a total astronomy nerd when he was little hit him. Midorikawa’s bed sheets were the most simple yet cute things he has ever seen, with the pattern of small bunnies sleeping on top of half moons, and he remembers clearly how the other boys would tease him because of them. And he still loved them.

Hiroto smiled while thinking about the innocent childhood days that were interrupted so suddenly, and he knew all of them had to try and continue them. On the desk that was at Hiroto's side of the room there was a picture, Midorikawa and him, both with nine years old, on a hill at night and looking at the starry night sky with a telescope. He remembered the telescope and looked under his bed and there it  was, inside a black and a little bit dusty and polished black wooden box, the telescope father gave him on his ninth birthday, and the memories of all those nights when he and Midorikawa would escape after dinner on the nights with no clouds to see the stars. 

In those nights, the both of them could spend hours talking about their day, how the sky looked brighter than on other days, and Hiroto could talk about all the cool things he knew about space and constellations, knowing that Midorikawa would hear him and ask him anytime he didn’t understand something. Some days Midorikawa would investigate and then they would have long talks about the stars. To think that Midorikawa would not remember those days broke his heart. Hiroto put the telescope back into the box and under the bed before putting on some sleeping clothes and trying to sleep. The next day he woke up really late, feeling sick, and his face showed he just had a really bad night of sleep. Nagumo almost fell down when he saw his face and his all-around tousled look when he got down the stairs.

“Who ate you and then spit you out?”

“Life” 

Nagumo snorted a laugh and let Hiroto pass to the dining room to have his breakfast. He ate alone at one of the tables, making an effort to enjoy his eggs and toast bread with butter when Reina sat next to him.

“Are you going to the hospital today?”

Hiroto didn’t say a thing and Reina could feel how she started getting angry because she didn’t get an immediate answer. Hiroto tried to grab the toast of his plate, but she pushed it away, making him look at her.

“Are you going?”

“Why are you angry at me and being so persuasive?” he said, with a slightly angered voice

“Hitomiko-san told me about Ryuuji” she saw the way Hiroto’s eyes dilated. “I’m worried for him, but I know that you are too”

“Of course I am, but I still don’t understand-”

“Do you blame yourself for what happened to everyone, including him?” she interrupted him. Hiroto went even paler than his usual pale, because someone said out loud the thing that had been worrying him.

“... You know me pretty well” he rested his arms on the table and then hide his face between them.

“I’ve known you all my life, Hiroto, and I know that you might think you could have done something to stop father, but you couldn’t” Reina put her hand on his shoulder and Hiroto put his on top, and squeezed hard.

“You think he will remember me?”

“Ryuuji would never forget the most important person in his life”

Reina squeezed that stiff shoulder before letting it go and standing up from the table, leaving Hiroto with a new feeling of confidence and erasing all of the ideas of avoiding going to the hospital. He finished his breakfast and went to his room to get ready; after he was ready, he took some time to look Midorikawa’s side of the room. It looked just like how the room of an eleven year old kid would look, with some pictures on the wall and on the desk that was at the feet of the bed, and lot of books and comics well organized on the shelf of the desk. He looked at his own side of the room and sighed, seeing it was more empty and even a little bit disorganized. 

Hiroto went to the bed and kneeled on it to see the pictures on the wall, while grabbing a yellow body pillow that made him nostalgic for a reason he didn’t remember. He hugged it and it still had that faint smell of chocolate because Midorikawa used to hide candy bars in there. The pictures were all from travels and vacations they all did as kids, and Hiroto started remembering all of them as he saw those photos. The one with Midorikawa and Miura at eight, swimming in a lake, or the one with him, Reina and Saginuma at six, making flower crowns that one day they were in the forest. He grabbed those two pictures and one with all of the orphans one Christmas. Hiroto got up and started eyeing all the books on the shelf of the desk and started looking at the titles. There was “The Hobbit” and other fantasy books, some classic stories like “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, “Momotarō” and some English literature like “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, who he remembers it managed to scare him a lot when he was only seven. In the pages of the books there were various bookmarks, and in those pages there were a lot of annotations, some notes Midorikawa did in where he tried to explain the personalities of the characters or the plot, and his favorite dialogues were highlighted on green highlighter, while his favorite narrations with the blue highlighter. The one that called his attention was one of a romance novel, it was pride and prejudice, the 526th page had no annotations, but only one dialogue highlighted and a sad face scribbled on the side. Hiroto read it out loud.

“ _ My real purpose was to see you, and to judge, if I could, whether I might ever hope to make you love me… _ ”

Hiroto repeated it in his head before closing the book and seeing the turquoise hardcover that had some designs in white. ¿Why did Midorikawa paid attention to that dialog?. Jealousy overwhelmed him as the idea that maybe he liked someone else at that moment got into his head, and if that was true, he understood him. Sometimes the only thing Hiroto could do was  watch him and hope for him to love him back. A knock on the door made him get back to earth and notice that he was clenching his jaw really hard. Hitomiko poked her head inside the room.

“Everyone is ready to go to the hospital”

Hiroto put some books and the pictures inside a red backpack and headed out with his sister. The rest leaved the orphanage a couple of minutes ago in some vans Hitomiko arranged for them, and he found himself on the last one, sitting between Nagumo and Suzuno, who looked like they had finally started being themselves again.

“Why couldn’t you go in another car?” said Nagumo, with a very displeased look on his face.

“I should ask you the same question” said Suzuno, avoiding eye contact while looking by the window.

“Can you two not fight right now?” Hiroto asked them nicely.

“We’re not fighting!” 

The both of them answered at the same time and Hiroto hugged his backpack even more. Suzuno notice that, and the really bad look he had on his face, he looked as if he was about to vomit.

“Did you bring something for Midorikawa?”

“Just some pictures, and books”

“You’re going to make him read?” Nagumo lifted an eyebrow, with a confused look on his face 

“Well, Midorikawa is pretty good at reading and using his brain. Not like you.” Suzuno started touching his hair with a cocky smile on his face. Nagumo was about to punch him.

“I’m just hoping that he remembers”

Nagumo and Suzuno stopped their petty fight when they saw Hiroto hiding his face between his arms. The rest of the trip to the hospital was completely silent and in ten minutes they were already there. The three of them stuck together, only because Nagumo and Suzuno looked at each other and silently agreed to check on Hiroto. The receptionist told them that all of the kids who entered the hospital the day before where staying on the second floor. They got into the elevator and when the doors opened and got inside the recovery room, the three of them saw something they had not seen in ages. 

It was just like when they all sleep together in that gigantic room when they were younger, only that instead of futons on the floor there were hospital beds perfectly aligned in the room. The kids from Epsilon and Gemini were on the beds or sitting in the chairs, wearing the hospital patients uniform that consisted on a two piece, soft blue outfit, and the other kids were happy to see all of them healthy. All of them were talking and laughing, acting like if nothing had happened and had big smiles on their faces, it was not the depressive image the three of them had imagined.

“Everyone! Look who came by!” screamed Maki, who was sitting on Mutou’s bed, to catch everyone's attention. “ Aliea top three players!”

“More like the top three buffoons, if you think about it” said Mutou, while eating some pudding

The three of them couldn’t avoid blushing a little out of the embarrassment of everyone laughing at them, and because they were right. Those last three years they were not the best kind of people and they knew they were acting like complete idiots towards the rest, only because they had the distinction of being the top three.

“I’ll let you all laugh because we were worried” Suzuno whispered under his breath and looked the other way while fixing his hair.

“I won’t” said Nagumo, already cracking his knuckles “Come here you little midget!” 

Mutou finished the rest of his vanilla pudding in one go and jumped out of his bed when Nagumo went after him. Everyone saw them running around while laughing and then they disappeared through the door, Suzuno decided to follow them before Hitomiko or the nurses noticed the ruckus. Maki managed to stop laughing and cleaned the tears from her eyes.

“Maki, I’m really happy to see that you and the rest are well” Hiroto approached her, a little bit ashamed, and she showed him a big smile.

“We were only a bit weak, so we will be dispatched in a day or two!”

Hiroto looked at everyone in the room, but he did not find the one he was looking for the most.

“Where’s Midorikawa?”

Maki’s cheerful smile slowly faded into a melancholic one and that made Hiroto start sweating.

“He’s on a private room on this floor” She looked at Hiroto in the eyes and smiled again “I’m sure that he will feel better if you talk to him”

Maki said to him the number of the room he was in before going with the rest. Hiroto went to said room, with a slow pace, thinking about what he should say, what book he should give him first and what photo show. Before he noticed it, he was already in front of the door, and when he finally gathered the courage to open it, Reina, Saginuma, Nagumo and Suzuno got out of the room.

“Hiroto! You’re late” said Reina jokingly 

“ I got a little lost”

“You shouldn't make him wait” Saginuma followed Reina and slapped him on the back, not letting Hiroto even ask him how he was feeling.

They let him alone in the corridor and with the door half open. He finished opening it and there was that well known green hair. What he saw was the small frame of his body and the back of his head because he was sitting on the bed and looking through the window. The green hair fell all the way to the middle of his back and Hiroto stopped himself just to watch him for a while. He took a deep breath and sighed in silence to knock on the door and catch Midorikawa’s attention. Midorikawa turned around and Hiroto found himself breathless while looking at the big eyes that looked at him in confusion.

“Hello. I brought you something” 

He took the backpack out of his back and when he approached the bed, he started taking out anything that could make him remember. Hiroto put some books on the bed and his hands were shaking, because Midorikawa wouldn’t stop looking at him and everything he did.

“I thought that maybe you’ll like this. You loved this” He handled him a book of short stories that looked like it was very used “You used to read it a lot. Also, this” He gave him a pack of gummy bears from a brand that he liked.

Midorikawa saw the candies and the book in silence and smiled, but Hiroto didn’t see it because he kept taking things out of his backpack.

“This too, I think you would like this” He gave him the pictures and Midorikawa took them. 

“Hiroto, why are you so weird?” Midorikawa started looking through the pictures and smiling.

“I really don’t know, I just… wait” he stopped himself and Midorikawa ignored him “You know who I am?”

“Don’t be silly, of course I do!”

Hiroto watched how Midorikawa went back to see the pictures then collapsed on the chair next to the bed and let out a big sigh, making Midorikawa laugh, and in the end, he ended laughing too.

“How?! Everyone told me you had amnesia!”

“I did, I still have some blurred memories. Everyone was worrying too much though. That album Reina gave to me helped me a lot” Midorikawa kept looking through the pictures and the Christmas one grabbed his attention “I’m sorry for making you worry”

“No, I’m sorry, for not being able to help you” he sat straight on the chair and looked at Midorikawa in the eyes.

Ryuuji left the pictures and books on the table beside the bed, on top of the photo albums and some candies and a sandwich Nagumo and Suzuno gave to him. Even if he was happy now that he finally saw Hiroto again, there was something he needed to get out of his chest.

“When Gemini lost, I thought everything was over. Then…  _ he _ did that to us, and I noticed it was far from over if he managed to fulfil his plan”

It was not needed to ask who “he” was, he knew he was referring to father, and he understood if Midorikawa never called him that way again.

“I should have stopped him”

“If you tried, you would have ended up like us, or even worse. I’m glad you didn’t know what happened”

There was a silence between them and Hiroto had so many questions, but ended up asking the most stupid one.

“Were you scared?”

“A lot.”

Suddenly, Midorikawa looked at his hand on top of the white bed sheet covering his legs and felt how he couldn't breath as he started remembering what had happened. He tried to hide his face with his hair and clean the tears quickly, but Hiroto noticed it and put his hand on top of his without thinking.

“Everything will be better from now on”

Midorikawa looked up at him and smiled, and Hiroto really missed seeing him smile, even if his nose was red and his eyes wet, looking at him smile took away every worry he had. He went and visited him every single day until the doctors said he could leave, and every single day, before returning to the orphanage, Hiroto wanted to tell him that he loved him, yet the guilt and the fear of losing his friend didn't let him. The time passed and the past looked like a bad dream compared to how their lives started being so normal and they were able to be themselves again. Some months passed after going back to the normal life, and Hiroto and Midorikawa were chosen as members of the national selection to play against the strongest teams in the world, and they both thought that it was amazing they could keep being together after all that time, but that time was cut short when Midorikawa couldn’t be on the team anymore. Even with distance, everything kept being the same between them and when Hiroto got back after winning the FFI, the first thing he did was to look for Midorikawa. When he found him on the soccer field with Saginuma and his sister, he took three deep breaths before approaching them, but before he took the last one, Midorikawa had already ran to him. All the things they had been planned for days to say to the other got lost as they smiled at each other.

By the time they got back to the orphanage everyone surprised Hiroto at the entrance with a surprise welcome party for him. While everyone surrounded him to ask him about his experience, he noticed that Midorikawa wasn’t with him anymore, but before he could try to escape the rest, he saw exactly the two people he did not want to see.

“I demand a rematch” said Nagumo with a frown.

“Please, Nagumo, let him rest at least today. We can wipe the floor with him tomorrow” Suzuno appeared behind him and grabbed him by the collar of his neck “Good to see you, did you have fun?”

“It’s good to see the both of you”

Hiroto faked a laugh and Saginuma came to his aid immediately. As the welcome party progressed, Midorikawa appeared, walking down the stairs, looking like he recently got out of the shower and changed his soccer uniform into more comfortable clothes before joining the rest. For some reason, everytime Hiroto or Midorikawa tried to talk to each other, someone joined or interrupted them, and the rest of the day went like this. It was only late at night when Hiroto saw the chance and managed to take Midorikawa’s wrist, pull him away from a conversation and go unnoticed as they got out of the orphanage and ran to the forest behind the building. Hiroto stopped when they reached the top of a hill and Midorikawa threw himself to the grass letting out a big sigh.

“You could have told me you wanted to come here!” his body was covered in sweat and he kept trying to catch a breath

“Sorry, but I don’t understand why everyone was so clingy with you today” said Hiroto, breathing heavily too as he sat next to Midorikawa 

“Well, as a former member of the Inazuma Japan, I can say my popularity increased”

“I’m glad that you didn’t feel lonely”

Midorikawa erased his pleased smile and exchanged it with a blush when Hiroto looked at him. Hiroto finished laying down on the grass and he looked up at the sky, there were no clouds and you could clearly see so many stars in the sky, even more than the ones he saw those nights alone when Midorikawa was still in the hospital. Instead of starting a meaningless conversation, like the ones they were used to, they stayed in silence for a while, a really comfortable one. Hiroto took the courage to turn his head a little and see that Midorikawa had his eyes fixated on the starry night sky. 

“Ryuuji”

When he called his name and Midorikawa turned his head to see him, Hiroto had an expression he had never seen in him. His face was as red as his hair, he was biting his lips, as if he was stopping himself for saying something. Midorikawa found him adorable and couldn’t avoid blushing too. Midorikawa tried to talk, but stuttered and in the end he couldn’t say a thing. Hiroto felt like standing up and running away, even if he had decided weeks ago that he would tell Midorikawa about his feelings. His mind went blank when laying his gaze on him, and Midorikawa didn’t look any better than him.

“The sky looks pretty tonight” blurted Hiroto out of nowhere

“Yes! Really pretty!”

The both of them quickly put their eyes on the sky again while having a conflict inside their heads. Hiroto wanted to say how he felt, he wished he was more bold and stopped thinking so much about what could happen. Then, suddenly, some shooting stars appeared in the sky, and the both of them closed their eyes to make a simple wish.

“I love you” 

The both of them spoke at the same time, and didn’t react until they finally understood what the other said. They sat on the ground as fast as they could, looking at each other with dumbfounded looks, trying to understand what happened. The idea of the other saying what they said sounded like a dream, yet they were awake and in front the person they loved, and the feelings were mutual. Midorikawa closed his mouth and was the first one to talk.

"For how long?” said he, more straightforward than Hiroto has even seen him.

“...Always” Hiroto’s voice was soft and low, he still didn’t believe what was happening. He thought it was just another dream in where confessed and Midorikawa loved him back.

There was another silence as they saw each other, then Midorikawa smiled and slowly took Hiroto’s hand to speak then lay back on the grass again.

“That’s good. Me too”

Hiroto was still looking at him, then at the hand Midorikawa had interlaced fingers with, and after at his face and how he looked at the sky, trying to control the situation and make it the less embarrassing that it could be. It was the most embarrassing situation in his life, yet he loved it. Hiroto laid down on the grass, now more close to Midorikawa, and felt how he cuddled beside him without saying anything and he did not say a thing either. They just kept looking at the stars.


End file.
